By Mary-Justine Lanyon
Editor
Those who attended the second of Russ Keller’s historical presentations at the library in Blue Jay will recall he left off with James Mooney – who developed a resort on the shores of Little Bear Lake – dying from the flu. He had no children and his nieces and nephews wanted nothing to do with his property in California.
The entire holdings of Mooney’s Arrowhead Reservoir Company went on the market.
Nine Los Angeles millionaires bought the entire Mooney holdings, Keller told a standing-room-only crowd at his third presentation. They formed the Arrowhead Lake Company.
“They wanted to rename Little Bear Lake Arrowhead Lake but that didn’t happen,” Keller said. He explained that the government denied the request because there was already an Arrowhead Springs post office, which had existed at the base of the mountain since 1887. “They thought it would be too confusing.”
And thus Lake Arrowhead was named.
Keller said that in her book The Saga of the San Bernardinos Paulina Lafuze said the millionaires paid $625,000 for the lake, 5,000 acres and Little Bear Resort. One of Mooney’s nephews came up and met with the Rim of the World Historical Society; he claimed Mooney spent $20 million of his personal fortune to buy the property, pay the employees and build the dam and resort.
“So,” Keller said, “the Arrowhead Lake Company got a very good deal.”
The Arrowhead Lake Company tore down the existing resort and built Lake Arrowhead Village in 1922, the first year Lake Arrowhead became full.
In 1924 a famous Hawaiian – Duke Kahanamoku, who won three Olympic gold medals in swimming – came to Lake Arrowhead for a swim meet. After the meet, Keller said, he went to Lake Arrowhead Village to eat but the restaurant would not serve him.
Western Air Express was flying between Los Angeles and Catalina. They wanted to establish service between Los Angeles and Lake Arrowhead. In May 1929 they flew a Sikorsky to Lake Arrowhead and landed on the lake. “They proclaimed Arrowhead services open and ready,” Keller said.
There was just one problem: When they went to take off, they couldn’t. The air was too thin so air service never got established. They had to dismantle the plane and truck it down the mountain.
Speaking of planes, Keller told the audience about two plane crashes into Lake Arrowhead.
In January 1944, an Army training plane crashed into the lake. The two servicemen aboard were killed. The Army’s investigation found the crash was due to pilot error.
And then in February 1972 a four-passenger Piper Cherokee crashed into the lake in dense fog.
Lake Arrowhead froze over twice – once in 1937 and again in 1949. Keller passed around a photo taken by Robert Honey of the frozen lake; Honey was the head of the Lake Arrowhead police.
Keller said he knew June Lockhart when she lived on the mountain. One day, he said, she pulled up to the yacht club dock in her 16-foot Chris-Craft and encountered a man with a lot of photography equipment.
“He asked her where he could catch the water taxi to Gene Vincent’s house, saying he had to get there for the wedding of Cary Grant and Barbara Hutton. June said, ‘I know where the house is – hop in.’ And she took the photographer to the wedding.”
In 1946 Lake Arrowhead, the village and surrounding real estate were sold to the Los Angeles Turf Club. “The Turf Club was not into developing property, selling lots or building homes,” Keller said. “They were into giving stuff away – they were very good at that. After the war there were incredible tax incentives to give stuff away.”
The Turf Club offered the North Shore Tavern to USC, who said no. UCLA didn’t want it either, Keller said. They finally gave it to the regents in Berkely, who ran classes there but it was not financially successful. Eventually in 1982 UCLA said they would take it and they still own it. It is now known at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Lodge.
The Turf Club gave the land to what is now the Lake Arrowhead Community Presbyterian Church. Architect Paul Williams designed and built the church that is still there today.
In 1960 the Turf Club’s property was sold to the Lake Arrowhead Development Company (LADCO). There were three principal owners, one of whom was Jules Berman. He brought the first Arrowhead Queen to Lake Arrowhead. Sadly, when docked during the winter it sank. It was resurrected and repaired but it only lasted a. year. In 1971 the current Queen was put on the lake.
LADCO expanded the nine-hole golf course to 18 holes and built the new country club.
In 1967 ownership of Lake Arrowhead passed from LADCO to Boise Cascade. In 1971 Boise Cascade thought they had sold the Lake Arrowhead properties to a group called the Chicago Seven but that deal fell through.
The Sylmar earthquake on Feb. 9, 1971, created problems for Boise Cascade as the state said they had three options for the existing dam, which they said would fail in a 6.6 earthquake: replace the dam with a new one, reinforce the existing dam or lower the level of the water 70 feet.
Thanks to Gov. Ronald Reagan, Arrowhead Woods was declared a flood control district; taxpayers were taxed $7 million over 20 years to build the dam that formed Papoose Lake, which was completed in April 1977.
Boise Cascade still wanted out. They had solved the problem of the dam but didn’t want anything to do with Lake Arrowhead, Keller said. So, in 1974, the Arrowhead Lake Association was formed. In 1975 ALA reached an agreement with Boise Cascade to purchase Lake Arrowhead as well as two beach clubs and the lake at the golf course.
But Boise Cascade wasn’t quite done – they still owned Lake Arrowhead Village. In 1977 they sold it to the Metropolitan Advertising Agency, which in turn sold it to GC Properties in 1978.
Keller shared some facts about Lake Arrowhead from Ralph Wagner’s book:
- It is the largest privately owned lake in California.
- The lake is 2.2 miles long; the shoreline is 13.65 miles around.
- When full, the lake’s surface area is 1.2 square miles.
- The deepest part of the lake is at the tower – 151.7 feet.
- Evaporation takes five feet per year off the level of the lake; another two feet is used for drinking water.
Next month Keller will turn his attention to Lake Arrowhead Village. That presentation is scheduled for Thursday, April 17 at 2:00 p.m.
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